Best. Salsas. Ever. At a great little taco-and-tequila bar called Chetito in Mexico City.
Review: Four Seasons Mexico City
The Four Seasons Mexico City got a much-needed refresh three years ago by the Parisian design house Gilles & Boissier. Although the hotel had been open only since 1994, the top-to-bottom renovation of this Spanish revival courtyard building felt long overdue…
Where to eat in Mexico City, 2018 update
A gourmet weekend in Mexico City? Great idea. These are my favorite fine-dining restaurants right now in Mexico’s capital.
Review: The St. Regis, Mexico City
The St. Regis Mexico City rises above the Paseo de la Reforma in a beautiful 32-story Cesar Pelli-designed tower. When the hotel opened in 2008, it was immediately the most luxurious hotel in the capital. It still is. The 189-room hotel overlooks the Reforma’s statue of Diana in the heart of Colonia Cuauhtemoc. The neighborhoods …
Review: The NoMad Hotel, Los Angeles
The NoMad Hotel in downtown Los Angeles opened in January 2018 and occupies a 12-story building that was originally erected in the roaring 1920s as the American headquarters of The Bank of Italy.
Photo of the week: Museo Soumaya, Mexico City
This is such an incredible feat of architecture by Fernando Romero. The museum was founded in 2011 by billionaire Carlos Slim and is named after his late wife, Soumaya.
What to eat next in Mexico City: incredible fish tacos at Zanaya
Absolutely incredible. The ultimate highlight — of many highs — of my most recent dining tour of Mexico City was the Zarandeado fish tacos at Zanaya, at the Four Seasons hotel…
O.C. Review: Southern Spice, Irvine
Dining at Southern Spice will test your threshold for chaos. You’ll wish you had swallowed a Valium before leaving the house. But you will eat very well.
Just Announced: 60th Annual SoCal Journalism Awards!
The Los Angeles Press Club just announced the winners of the Southern California Journalism Awards, and I’m thrilled to have won Best Food Criticism for my reviews in the Orange County Register for the second year in a row. Here are two of the reviews that got me into the competition this year.
The great burger debate: lettuce or no lettuce?
A chef on Instagram recently launched a debate by posting a picture of a cheeseburger beneath which he posed a simple question, “Lettuce or no lettuce?”
I didn’t weigh in, but I silently screamed, “Lettuce!”
Photo of the week: Hotel Paseo, Palm Desert
The Hotel Paseo recently opened in Palm Desert, and one of the new hotel’s coolest suites is actually an Airstream trailer parked in the courtyard near the pool…
O.C. Review: El Coyotito, San Juan Capistrano
I stuff a few dollar bills into the machine and scroll through the CDs: Banda Machos, Gerardo Ortiz, Juan Gabriel, Julio Iglesias, Enrique Iglesias, Christina Aguilera … and settle on the younger Iglesias, plus The Eagles, The Cars and Eric Clapton. The Eagles’ 1979 hit “I Can’t Tell You Why” begins to play, and everyone in the dining room seems to approve, even the two guys in the corner who are wearing dusty cowboy boots and sharing an ice-filled bucket of beer.
Just announced: Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Awards!
Awesome news today! My photos of Mar Adentro resort in Los Cabos took the top prize for photography at this year’s Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Awards, sponsored by the Society of American Travel Writers Foundation…
Photo of the week: Casa Luis Barragán, Mexico City
The former home and studio of Luis Barragán in Mexico City has been meticulously preserved and now functions as a museum and art center. Luis Barragán was one of the most important architects of North American mid-century design…
Mexico Earthquake Relief: How you can help.
My heart aches for Mexico right now. The recent earthquakes have taken a mighty toll. A lot of people are hurting. If you want to help, here’s how:
Why I travel: for the food, but also for the unexpected
My rickshaw driver keeps pace with taxis as he peddles me through Hanoi’s Old Quarter. The cool wind against my face brings relief from Vietnam’s stifling summer heat. Just as I’m about to relax, I smell smoke. It’s not the ubiquitous smog of unregulated motorbike exhausts. I immediately recognize this aroma as barbecue, like pork …
